Long-term persistence of RBD+ memory B cells encoding neutralizing antibodies in SARS-CoV-2 infection
Open accessAbstract
Considerable concerns relating to the duration of protective immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) exist, with evidence of antibody titers declining rapidly after infection and reports of reinfection. Here, we monitor the antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain (RBD) for up to 6 months after infection. While antibody titers are maintained, ∼13% of the cohort's neutralizing responses return to background. However, encouragingly, in a selected subset of 13 participants, 12 have detectable RBD-specific memory B cells and these generally are increasing out to 6 months. Furthermore, we are able to generate monoclonal antibodies with SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing capacity from these memory B cells. Overall, our study suggests that the loss of neutralizing antibodies in plasma may be countered by the maintenance of neutralizing capacity in the memory B cell repertoire.
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Memory B cells might contribute to the durability of antibody responses.
“Memory B cells might contribute to the durability of antibody responses38,39; B cell germinal centre responses and the durability of protective efficacy following CV2CoV vaccination remain to be determined.”
From Optimization of non-coding regions for a non-modified mRNA COVID-19 vaccine (2022) · cites this paper as [38]
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References 42 · Cited by 78
- Authors
- Abayasingam, A., Balachandran, H., Agapiou, D., Hammoud, M., Rodrigo, C., Keoshkerian, E., Li, H., Brasher, N. A., Christ, D., Rouet, R., Burnet, D., Grubor-Bauk, B., Rawlinson, W., Turville, S., Aggarwal, A., Stella, A. O., Fichter, C., Brilot, F., Mina, M., Post, J. J., Hudson, B., Gilroy, N., Dwyer, D., Sasson, S. C., Tea, F., Pilli, D., Kelleher, A., Tedla, N., Lloyd, A. R., Martinello, M., & Bull, R. A.
- Affiliations
- UNSW Sydney (AU)
- Garvan Institute of Medical Research (AU)
- The University of Sydney (AU)
- Northern Beaches Hospital (AU)
- Royal North Shore Hospital (AU)
- Westmead Hospital (AU)
- Blacktown & Mount Druitt Hospital (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Bull, Rowena A.
- ORCID
- Abayasingam, Arunasingam
- Balachandran, Harikrishnan
- Agapiou, David
- Hammoud, Mohamed
- Rodrigo, Chaturaka
- Keoshkerian, Elizabeth
- Li, Hui
- Brasher, Nicholas A.
- Christ, Daniel
- Rouet, Romain
- Grubor-Bauk, Branka
- Rawlinson, William
- Turville, Stuart
- Aggarwal, Anupriya
- Stella, Alberto Ospina
- Fichter, Christina
- Brilot, Fabienne
- Mina, Michael
- Post, Jeffrey J.
- Hudson, Bernard
- Dwyer, Dominic
- Sasson, Sarah C.
- Tea, Fiona
- Pilli, Deepti
- Kelleher, Anthony
- Tedla, Nicodemus
- Lloyd, Andrew R.
- Martinello, Marianne
- Bull, Rowena A.
- Venue
- Cell Reports Medicine
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2021-04
- Volume
- 2
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 100228
- ISSN
- 2666-3791 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7955929
- OpenAlex
- W3137146274
- Cited by
- 78
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 23 · 2021: 32
- FWCI
- 5.54
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Cell Reports Medicine (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UNSWorks (University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Adelaide Research & Scholarship (AR&S) (University of Adelaide) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- The Sydney eScholarship Repository (The University of Sydney) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Royal North Shore Hospital
- Australian Government
- Marie Bashir Institute, University of Sydney
- Department of Health and Ageing, Australian Government
- University of New South Wales
- University of Sydney
- NSW Health Pathology
- National Health and Medical Research Council
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research
- Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Immunology › Immune responses and vaccinations
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies
- Keywords
- SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 pandemic, memory B cells, neutralizing antibodies, receptor binding domain, antibody persistence, antibody waning, monoclonal antibodies, humoral immunity, reinfection, long-term immunity
- MeSH terms
- Protein Domains, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Memory B Cells, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Neutralization Tests, Severity of Illness Index, Time Factors, Young Adult, Antibodies, Neutralizing, Limit of Detection, Asymptomatic Diseases, Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus
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